Banter
by Mrs Franklin-Bash
Summary: Some office banter between Jared Franklin and Damien Karp leads to some unexpected feelings. Jared/Damien.
1. Chapter 1

**First fic - Jared/Damien. Very short, I know, but I will continue if people like the story. Enjoy.**

Jared Franklin slowly made his way into the office he shared with his best friend, Peter Bash. He was feeling rougher than usual today. The male had gone a little crazy at last night's Margarita Monday, even by his own standards.

When he stepped inside the large office, he was surprised to find a tall male sat on the edge of his desk and it wasn't his Partner.

"Can I help you with something Karp?" Jared asked, a little drowsily.

"What happened to you?" The older male questioned and Jared glared at the smirk that presented itself on Damien's face. "You look even worse than you normally do."

"What do you want?" The shorter man spat, not in the mood for the banter he usually shared with his colleague.

Once again, Damien didn't answer Jared's question. "Late night?"

"Yeah, with your Mom."

"I highly doubt that." Karp smiled at the younger male's attempt to offend him. "My mother has better taste."

"I swear to god, this is the last time I'm going to ask this question." Jared leaned back against Peter's desk and held his right hand to his head, trying to ease the pain a little. "What do you want, Karp?"

"What makes you think I want something?" Damien was having far too much fun annoying his colleague to stop now. "Maybe I just wanted to chat."

"Well I don't want to _chat_ right now." Jared closed his eyes, blocking out the daylight that was adding to the overall pain of his hangover. "Especially not with you." He added.

"Ouch." Damien held his hand to his heart, showing mock pain. "I'm hurt."

"I'm serious!" He shouted, jumping up from his partner's desk. "What. Do. You. Want?"

Karp watched as Jared staggered a little and brought his hand up to his forehead once again. "Are you okay?"

Jared could have sworn that he heard a hint of concern in the older lawyer's voice. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

Their eyes locked for a moment and Jared had to admit, Damien did look genuinely worried. "Look, if you're not gonna tell me what you want then just leave me alone okay. I have better things to do than argue with you."

"Like what? We both know that you don't do any real lawyer work, so I'm curious, what is it that you have to do?"

"Bite me Karp."

"I'd love to, really, but you know I don't fool around with colleagues."

That comment took Jared off guard. There were very few times that he had ever been rendered speechless, but this was one of those times. "W… What?"

"I said…"

"I heard what you said." Jared interrupted, still trying to process the information. "I don't know what game you're playing, but I'm _really_ not in the mood today."

"Okay." Damien smirked as he stood up straight and headed towards the door. He turned before leaving and glanced at Jared again. "See ya around, Franklin."

The shorter lawyer watched, gob-smacked, as Karp left his office. When had Damien Karp become so… so… irritating, so confident, and so… sexy?


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to all the people reading, following and favoriting this and thanks to Kimi for reviewing. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Sorry my chapters are so short.**

Sexy? No way, Damien Karp was not sexy. Annoying and a pain in the ass? Yes, but not sexy. Jared wasn't thinking straight, or at least that's what he tried to convince himself. Must still have beer goggles on from last night.

The lawyer's thoughts were interrupted as his best friend and legal partner, Peter Bash, entered their shared office.

"Are you okay, man?" Peter raised his eyebrows at the shorter male. "You look terrible."

"Thank you." Jared replied downheartedly, moving towards his desk, before slumping down into the chair.

"Anytime." Peter grinned to himself. "You know I'm always here and more than happy to provide my mocking services."

"Well I've had just about as much of those kinds of services as I can stand today." The man groaned as he closed his eyes and rested his head against the back of his chair, his mind wandering back to his experience with Damien Karp.

"Damn it." The taller male spat, still chuckling lightly. "Who beat me to it? Was it Carmen? Or Pindar? I knew I shouldn't have left for work so early; I should have stayed around for when you got up. You were pretty out of it last night man."

"It wasn't Carmen or Pindar." Jared breathed out; the sound of Peter's rather loud ramble wasn't helping with his headache one bit. "It was… Karp."

"Karp? As in Damien Karp? Really, you let Karp get under your skin?" Peter glanced over at his friend in disbelief. "Wow, you're not living that down for a while."

"What? Why won't Karp let me live it down?" Jared asked confused.

"He probably will, but I won't." The dark haired man grinned, laughing at his friend's expense.

"Awesome." Was all that Jared said and he regretted it the moment he heard the word fall from his lips.

"Wow, now you're starting to sound like Karp." Peter moved closer to Jared's desk, a Cheshire cat smile still plastered across his face. "What is wrong with you?"

"I have no idea." Jared responded, inwardly beating himself for letting Peter know that Damien had got the better of him. "He caught me off guard that's all; it won't happen again. Actually, I blame you for this."

"Me? How is this my fault?"

"Because the stupid drinking games we played last night were your idea."

Peter chuckled softly. "That may be so, but I don't remember pouring any alcohol down your throat. You did that all by yourself."

"Shut up." Jared wasn't doing too well with the comebacks today.

"Come on, you're a big boy now Jared, well… sort of." The taller man laughed at his own joke. "You need to take responsibility for your own actions."

"Are you listening to yourself?" He smirked at his friend. "You sound like my father. What the hell is going on today? Has everybody gone insane? First Karp coming in here being all Mr. Annoying Pain in the butt Sexy Smart-ass and then you, you turn up and start lecturing me on drinking and taking responsibility. I Just…"

"Sexy?" Peter interrupted, his eyes nearly bulging from their sockets.

"What?"

"Did you just call Karp, 'Sexy'?" He was laughing but he didn't know quite what to make of his friend's outburst.

"No... No." Jared didn't say that, did he? He tried to think back to his rant, but he couldn't remember.

"Yes, you did."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes…"

"Don't you dare say 'Yes, you did.'" Jared cut him off. He knew from experience that they could go on like this for ever. "I… I didn't."

"You and Karp?" Peter inquired, his voice now sounding more serious than mocking.

"No, no way. There's nothing going on between me and Karp. That just slipped out, I didn't mean to say it."

"But you admit that you did say it?" He couldn't hold back the smirk that appeared on his face.

"I… I don't know, maybe. Even if I did, it doesn't mean anything. Maybe I'm still drunk." The lighter haired man held his hand to his forehead as he squeezed his eyes shut, his headache getting worse by the second. "I think I need to go home."

"You do that. I'll let Stanton know you're not well." Peter agreed moving towards the office door to hold it open for his friend.

"Thank you, I think." Jared followed Peter towards the door.

"Don't think that this is over though, we'll continue this conversation later tonight."

"Great. I'll look forward to it." Jared let out sarcastically.

Peter smiled as Jared walked past him and out of their office. "Hey Jar," He waited for him to turn around and face him before continuing. "Get some sleep, okay." Jared nodded. "Do you want me to send Karp round to tuck you in and give you a kiss good night?"

"You're hilarious." The shorter male turned away from his partner and continued to make his way through the building towards the exit, checking as he went that no-one had paid any attention to what Peter had just said.


End file.
